Sudan protecting Darfur war crimes suspects: justice minister

KHARTOUM: Sudan is protecting two men wanted for war crimes in Darfur and is not serious about pursuing members of allied militias for committing atrocities, the countrys own state minister for justice said Wednesday.

Minister Bol Lul Wang is a member of South Sudans dominant Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement, former southern rebels who joined a coalition government with the North after a 2005 peace deal ended decades of civil war.

Wang told Reuters he and thousands of other Southern officials were now preparing to leave the North to take up positions in the new South Sudan.

The Justice Ministry appointed a prosecutor in 2008 to investigate reports of war crimes in Darfur region.

When asked whether Sudan was currently pursuing active cases against two men wanted for war crimes in Darfur by the International Criminal Court militia leader Ali Kushayb and state Governor Ahmad Haroun Wang answered: Not at all.

The prosecutor may find some difficulties taking procedures against them because they are being protected by the government, he said in an interview in his Khartoum office. These people are high figures in the government. The government has no will to pursue or even investigate those people It is not serious. Because if it were serious they would not let a man like Haroun hold a ministerial post.

The ICCs prosecutor accused Haroun of recruiting and arming Janjaweed militias to crush the Darfur uprising, as part of Harouns then-job as minister of state for the interior.

Haroun, who denies the allegations, went on to become state (or junior) minister for humanitarian affairs before moving to his current position as governor of the oil producing region of Southern Kordofan.

Later in 2008 the Justice Ministry said the prosecutor had wrapped up an investigation into charges against Kushayb but has since not announced any prosecution and officials have made contradictory statements about whether he is detained.

Meanwhile, the African Union will welc! ome the birth of an independent South Sudan, its chief said Wednesday, as the region gears up for likely separation following this months historic referendum.

Whatever the people of Southern Sudan decide, we will support, said AU head and Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika, speaking alongside Southern President Salva Kiir.

Southern Sudan is a baby of the African Union, so I dont know how a parent can have a baby and wait for someone else to tell them they have a baby, Mutharika said in the Southern capital, after visiting Khartoum earlier in the day. Surely it will be useful for us to be the first ones to recognize the existence of Southern Sudan, and then let the others follow.

An independence referendum this month was the centerpiece of a 2005 peace deal that ended a devastating 22-year civil war between the Khartoum government and southern rebels.

Mutharika said the South would have the full backing of the rest of the continent to rebuild itself after the long years of conflict.

The Souths minister for regional cooperation, Deng Alor, said it was too early for South Sudan to decide whether it would establish diplomatic relations with Israel. We dont have a problem with Israel. If our national interest demands that we establish diplomatic relations, we will do, but we cannot make this decision now, he said.

Alor is the precursor to the Souths foreign minister until it becomes independent on July 9.

He also said an independent South Sudan will consider joining the ICC.

The ICC is about human rights. We fought for over 40 years for human rights we will see the procedure and definitely they will contact us or we will contact them and we will have no problem, he said late Tuesday.

Alor added South Sudan would also apply for membership of the African Union and the East African Community after the formal announcement of referendum results in February. Reuters